Quick response by firefighters attached to the Central Fire Station in Berbice yesterday prevented a two-storey house from being destroyed by a fire, which had been started by two preschoolers, aged five and three years old.
The flames only managed to destroy a bedroom and its contents at the back of the wooden and concrete structure before being extinguished by the firefighters.
The Jardines, who occupy the Lot 2 Islington, Greater New Amsterdam house, were relieved and grateful yesterday no one had been harmed and that the fire was contained before more damage was done.
The owner of the house, Anita Jardine, resides in the upper flat of the building with her husband, two sons, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren. She operates a grocery and off-licence shop in the lower flat. Jardine also owns another two-storey house on the property, which she rents to tenants. It was the sons of her tenants who unintentionally started the fire while playing with a box of matches in the bedroom.
According to Jardine, the boys, who from all appearances have been deserted by their birth mother since February 23 this year, would normally spend the day at her house while their father works. Jardine said she was washing clothes in the back yard and keeping an eye on her shop when her daughter-in-law who had just finished giving her own daughter a bath, enquired as to the boys’ whereabouts. Jardine recalled seeing the boys watching the television in the living room upstairs, but could not say if they had left the house and told her daughter-in-law so.
At that point they both ventured upstairs to check on them. “By the time we go upstairs to look for them I see them holding hands smiling walking away from the back room but they had this mischievous look on their faces,” she said. It was her daughter-in-law who noticed that the bedroom door was closed and that smoke was emanating from the room. “She said look smoke coming out the back room and when I pull open the door I see fire and I run downstairs and start holler.”
Neighbours immediately summoned the fire service and firefighters responded to the scene in less than five minutes. “I ain’t know who call the fire service, because I was too confused. But they respond prompt and I want to thank them,” Jardine said shakily.
While the fire destroyed the bedroom and its contents resulting in several thousand dollars in losses and the water used to extinguish the fire damaged some of the goods in the shop, Jardine said she was extremely thankful that the firefighters were able to quickly contain the fire as she acknowledged it could have been a lot worse.
Meanwhile, Divisional Officer of the Guyana Fire and Rescue Service ‘B’ Division, Superintendent Patrick Carmichael, who was on scene, took the opportunity to appeal to the public to take better steps in preventing fires. “I wish to appeal to the general public especially parents and guardians to desist from leaving children unattended and put up all matches and lighters out of the reach of children,” he advised. He confirmed that “the fire was due to a child playing with matches” and noted this could have been avoided if they were properly supervised and if all matches were kept out of their reach.
